Mr. Coon: Last year, only 350 graduates were able to take advantage of the Timely Completion
Benefit to help ease their debt burden. The average completion time for a 4-year bachelor’s degree in New Brunswick is actually 4.8 years, but the debt relief from the Timely Completion Benefit is restricted to students who finished their degrees in 4 years. As this is now the only student debt relief program offered by this government, will the minister help ease the debt burden for our students by extending the Timely Completion Benefit to include students who take an additional year to finish their degrees?

Mr. Coon: The thing about tuition is that it represents only about one third of the cost of
attending university. Even those students who can take advantage of the Tuition Access Bursary will still be burdened by considerable debt when they graduate. The government has eliminated most of the debt relief programs that were once in place, and it has reduced the ceiling on the Timely Completion Benefit. Rent, for example, makes up 40% of the cost of attending university for the average student. Interest on student debt adds thousands and thousands of dollars to the costs that recent graduates have to pay. I believe it is time, in fact, to stop charging interest on student loans. Will the Minister of Post-Secondary Education eliminate the interest on the provincial portion of student loans to provide some debt relief to New Brunswick students?

Hon. Mr. Melanson: We are working very hard with universities to come up with long-term,
stable funding through memorandums of understanding, and the discussions are going really well. This will bring more predictability in terms of funding and how universities can plan ahead and how students can plan ahead when they want to register at postsecondary education institutions. I want to remind the member that a lot of work has been done by this government to help students, both those who are in postsecondary education and those who did not consider postsecondary education because of the cost of going to these institutions. We have brought in the TAB program to bring free tuition to New Brunswickers who want to go to these public institutions. At the end of the day, it is going to be a huge benefit for them. It will reduce their debt load. We will have more prosperity and better-qualified people to go into the workforce in our province.
https://youtu.be/EXp84yNvVcILa vidéo et la transcription pour les questions orales son enregistrée dans la langue utilisée.

Mr. Coon: Last year, only 350 graduates were able to take advantage of the Timely Completion
Benefit to help ease their debt burden. The average completion time for a 4-year bachelor’s degree in New Brunswick is actually 4.8 years, but the debt relief from the Timely Completion Benefit is restricted to students who finished their degrees in 4 years. As this is now the only student debt relief program offered by this government, will the minister help ease the debt burden for our students by extending the Timely Completion Benefit to include students who take an additional year to finish their degrees?

Mr. Coon: The thing about tuition is that it represents only about one third of the cost of
attending university. Even those students who can take advantage of the Tuition Access Bursary will still be burdened by considerable debt when they graduate. The government has eliminated most of the debt relief programs that were once in place, and it has reduced the ceiling on the Timely Completion Benefit. Rent, for example, makes up 40% of the cost of attending university for the average student. Interest on student debt adds thousands and thousands of dollars to the costs that recent graduates have to pay. I believe it is time, in fact, to stop charging interest on student loans. Will the Minister of Post-Secondary Education eliminate the interest on the provincial portion of student loans to provide some debt relief to New Brunswick students?

Hon. Mr. Melanson: We are working very hard with universities to come up with long-term,
stable funding through memorandums of understanding, and the discussions are going really well. This will bring more predictability in terms of funding and how universities can plan ahead and how students can plan ahead when they want to register at postsecondary education institutions. I want to remind the member that a lot of work has been done by this government to help students, both those who are in postsecondary education and those who did not consider postsecondary education because of the cost of going to these institutions. We have brought in the TAB program to bring free tuition to New Brunswickers who want to go to these public institutions. At the end of the day, it is going to be a huge benefit for them. It will reduce their debt load. We will have more prosperity and better-qualified people to go into the workforce in our province.